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ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: SIEGE OF RAGE AND RUIN
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://djangowexler.com/
CITY: Seattle
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 343
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in San Francisco, CA.
EDUCATION:Carnegie Mellon University, degrees in creative writing and computer science.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, former artificial intelligence researcher; Microsoft Corp., Seattle, WA, former programmer.
AVOCATIONS:Role-playing games, Japanese anime, painting miniatures for tabletop wargames.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
With an expertise in computers and programming, Django Wexler once worked as an artificial intelligence researcher, and he weaves his tech interests into his “Shadow Campaigns” fantasy novels for adults. Wexler turns to a younger audience in his “Forbidden Library” series— The Forbidden Library, The Mad Apprentice, The Palace of Glass, and The Fall of the Readers —and chronicles the adventures of a girl who can literally enter a book’s narrative and interact with its characters. (open new)Other series by Wexler include “Wells of Sorcery” and “Burningblade and Silvereye.”(close new—more below)
Wexler’s debut novel, Memories of Empire, is set in a fantasy world reminiscent of Middle Eastern and Asian cultures. Sold into slavery by her father, Veil is freed when a mysterious swordsman slaughters her captors, and she joins the tortured, amnesiac Corvus on his journey to the city of Corsa, where he hopes to regain his memories. Meanwhile, a strange and impulsive aristocrat named Lady Tashida hires Kei and Kit to locate a fugitive sorcerer. When these two groups converge, it is revealed that ancient spirits have brought them together. In Library Journal, Jackie Cassada applauded Wexler’s narrative here, asserting that Memories of Empire features “a rich, exotic background for a group of unique and memorable characters.”
With The Thousand Names, Wexler opens his “Shadow Campaigns” series of military fantasies. Khandar, a remote outpost of the Vordanai Empire, is in peril when a fanatical religious sect declares rebellion. Reinforcements arrive under the leadership of the brilliant yet enigmatic Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich, whose mission to restore peace to the region is complicated by his search for a powerful magic relic. Booklist reviewer Krista Hutley praised the novel’s “unique setting, intricate plotting, and layered characters.” Wexler’s “Shadow Campaigns” series continues in The Shadow Throne, an “audacious and subversive sequel,” according to a Publishers Weekly critic, as well as The Price of Valor and The Guns of Empire.
Wexler concludes his “Shadow Campaigns” series with The Infernal Battalion. In this volume, Janus’s mind has been infiltrated by a demon known as the Beast. The Beast forces him to cause chaos in the kingdom of Vordan, which is led by Queen Raesnia and General Marcus. Winter, a woman pretending to be a male soldier, finally destroys the Beast and saves Jordan. “Being able to actually write the ending I vaguely sketched out so long ago is kind of an amazing feeling,” suggested Wexler in an interview with a writer on the MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape website. Wexler continued: “The very beginning of this series was almost completely different from where it ended up—Winter was a late addition, and the plot was supposed to much more closely parallel historical events. I never got very far with that version, and I did a lot of tinkering as I was writing The Thousand Names. After I finished it, I wrote outlines for the remaining books in the series, and at that point things were pretty well set—I’m actually shocked at how close to those original outlines the results have ended up!” In an interview with a contributor to the Fantasy-Faction website, Wexler discussed the theme of the book, stating: “We get this sort of ultimate question of how far does loyalty go, at what point are people going to follow a charismatic leader, and at what point are they going to turn away? And that’s what I was really interested in with this series, so I hope it’s kind of captured that.” Regarding the development of the setting, Wexler remarked: “Basically, I knew I wanted to do something that wasn’t knights and castles, that wasn’t that sort of twelfth or thirteenth century England and Scotland, which is kind of the basis for most of fantasy. Partly because I feel George R.R. Martin had done that, and he did a really good job, and I wanted to do something like that: I wanted to do something historical, but not something in that period.”
In an interview with a writer on the BookNest website, Wexler discussed the book’s characters. He stated: “I love writing Janus’ dialog, and Marcus’ bluff obliviousness can be delightful. But I think Winter is probably my favorite, if only because she was a late-comer to the story.” Wexler added: “I wanted to get more women into the story, but I was initially wary of the ‘women disguised as a man’ plot because it’s been done so many times. But, I learned in my reading, it happened for real—not once but literally hundreds of times during this period.” Wexler continued: “So I went with it, and Winter’s character kind of grew from there—her backstory, her steady rise through the ranks, her romances. Her character came about kind of organically and ended up being probably the most important part of the series. I love that about writing—it can surprise even the author.” “Fans will be pleased by this suspenseful, emotional, and extremely gratifying finale,” predicted Krista Hutley in Booklist.
In The Forbidden Library, the first book in Wexler’s middle-grade fantasy saga, twelve-year-old Alice Creighton is orphaned when her father dies mysteriously after an encounter with a belligerent fairy. She is sent to live with her uncle Geryon, a man she has never met, and she begins to explore his large home. Told that the unusual library housed in his mansion is off limits, she quickly gives in to temptation when a talking cat invites her to open the door and explore the room. There she meets Isaac, a Reader with the remarkable ability to enter the stories in books. When she learns that she possesses the same powers, Alice uses them to defeat a fearsome creature residing in one of the library’s volumes. “Vaguely reminiscent of ‘Harry Potter,’ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Inkheart all rolled into one, it’s good fun,” a writer noted in appraising The Forbidden Library in Kirkus Reviews. “It’s a joy to watch the dutiful Alice develop her innate curiosity and become a proactive, resourceful heroine,” observed Krista Hutley in Booklist.
Now an apprentice to Uncle Geryon, Alice receives a dangerous assignment in The Mad Apprentice. Sent to track down another apprentice, one who may have killed his master, she soon finds herself in a life-or-death struggle with Torment, a diabolical foe that may have orchestrated the murder. A writer in Kirkus Reviews praised Wexler as “an able builder of magical worlds and creatures,” adding that “labyrinths, an enchanted library, and a feisty, swashbuckling heroine” enliven Alice’s adventures in The Mad Apprentice.
In The Palace of Glass, another novel in “The Forbidden Library,” Alice seeks revenge on Geryon for his role in her father’s death, turning to Ending, the talking feline, for help. A critic in Kirkus Reviews described The Palace of Glass as “a busy continuing saga filled with fantastical drama and feisty finagling.”
The Fall of the Readers is the final installment in the “Forbidden Library” series. It finds Alice having defeated Geryon. She leads an effort to free Ending and his people. Meanwhile, Alice puts herself in further danger by confronting the Great Binding. A Kirkus Reviews writer asserted: “Three cheers for a female protagonist who demonstrates strong leadership skills without losing the prospect of love or friendship.”
In Ship of Smoke and Steel, Wexler introduces another set of characters. The book stars Isoka, a tough teen money collector whose motivation is protecting her younger sister. When her sister’s life is put in danger, Isoka must steal a ghost ship to save her, a nearly impossible task. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews suggested: “The characters are well-developed, and diversity … is abundant. From gory fights to unexpected romance, this has something for every fantasy lover.”
(open new)Isoka returns in City of Stone and Silence, the second volume in the “Wells of Sorcery” series. When this volume begins, she is leading the crew of a ship called the Soliton. After docking at the Harbor, Isoka meets and falls for Princess Meroe, and she fights off an army of the undead unleashed by a magician called Prime. Meanwhile, her sister, Tori, has been living in a castle in the second ward and secretly serving runaway mage-bloods in a hospital and refuge. Tori and Isoka long to be reunited. The story alternates between Tori’s point of view and Isoka’s point of view. A Kirkus Reviews writer described the volume as “a magical, enthralling must-read.”
In Siege of Rage and Ruin, Isoka and Meroe board the Soliton with plans to return to Kahnzoka to rescue Tori. When they arrive, they are surprised to find Tori at the center of a bloody rebellion in the city. Isoka’s nemesis, Kuon Naga, dispatches mage-bloods to kidnap Tori. In addition to conflict with outside parties, the sisters experience tension in their relationship throughout the volume. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews called the book “a fast-paced, compelling conclusion to this fantasy saga.”
Ashes of the Sun is the first volume in Wexler’s “Burningblade and Silvereye” trilogy. It centers on siblings Gyre and Maya. When they are children, a powerful entity called the Twilight Order kidnaps Maya and raises her as one of them. They have influenced her to use of innate magic to maintain their power over the Republic. Meanwhile Gyre, who has become known as Halfmask, has become a key member of a rebellion against the Order. When Maya is sent to quell the rebellion, she is pitted against her brother. “Familial tension, magic, and politics combine to kick this series off to a powerful start,” asserted a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. Hutley, the Booklist writer, commented: “This standout series opener is a winner: intricate, immersive, and irresistible.”
In an interview with Paul Semel on Semel’s self-titled website, Wexler discussed his creation of the setting for the series. He stated: “I wanted to try something closer to the wreckage a modern civilization would leave behind, so it’s less ‘Lord Of The Rings’ and more Mad Max, with humans repurposing ancient materials and machines into makeshift new roles.” Regarding the storyline, Wexler told Semel that his inspiration was “‘Star Wars,’ and specifically the way the Jedi Order works, as we see in the prequels and the Clone Wars TV show—people with Force potential are brought to the Jedi for training very young. Nobody ever really seems unhappy about it, but I wanted to write a story that questioned that a little more, and also the whole notion that ultimate authority goes to a group of people who are basically born with their potential.”(close new)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June 1, 2013, Krista Hutley, review of The Thousand Names, p. 52; April 15, 2014, Krista Hutley, review of The Forbidden Library, p. 51; January 1, 2018, Krista Hutley, review of The Infernal Battalion, p. 57; November 15, 2019, Stacey Comfort, review of City of Stone and Silence, p. 52; June 1, 2020, Krista Hutley, review of Ashes of the Sun, p. 51.
Horn Book, July-August, 2015, Mary Burkey, review of The Forbidden Library, p. 168.
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2014, review of The Forbidden Library; January 15, 2015, review of The Mad Apprentice; February 1, 2016, review of The Palace of Glass; September 1, 2017, review of The Fall of the Readers; November 15, 2018, review of Ship of Smoke and Steel; October 15, 2019, review of City of Stone and Silence; October 15, 2020, review of Siege of Rage and Ruin.
Library Journal, September 15, 2005, Jackie Cassada, review of Memories of Empire, p. 59.
Publishers Weekly, May 20, 2013, review of The Thousand Names, p. 41; May 26, 2014, review of The Shadow Throne, p. 41; May 11, 2020, review of Ashes of the Sun, p. 74.
School Library Journal, April, 2014, H. Islam, review of The Forbidden Library, p. 155; February, 2015, H. Islam, review of The Mad Apprentice, p. 95.
Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2014, Katie Mitchell, review of The Forbidden Library, p. 90.
ONLINE
Blogin’ Hobgoblin, https://thebloggoblin.com/ (January 4, 2018), author interview.
BookNest, http://booknest.eu/ (July 19, 2017), author interview.
Civilian Reader, https://civilianreader.com/ (December 6, 2017), author interview; (July 22, 2020), author interview.
Django Wexler website, http://djangowexler.com (March 3, 2021).
Fantasy-Faction, http://fantasy-faction.com/ (January 9, 2018), author interview.
Locus, https://locusmag.com/ (July 21, 2020), article by author.
MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape, https://mylifemybooksmyescape.wordpress.com/ (February 5, 2018), author interview.
PaulSemel.com, (July 20, 2020), Paul Semel, author interview.
Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America website, http://www.sfwa.org/ (September 12, 2013), Cat Rambo, author interview.
SF Signal, http://www.sfsignal.com/ (April 23, 2013), Nick Sharps, review of The Thousand Names; (June 19, 2013) Nick Sharps, author interview; (July 11, 2013) Paul Weimer, review of The Thousand Names.
Unbound Worlds, https://www.unboundworlds.com/ (January 8, 2018), Shawn Speakman, author interview.*
Django Wexler is the author of flintlock fantasy series The Shadow Campaigns, middle grade fantasy The Forbidden Library, and YA fantasy The Wells of Sorcery. His latest is epic fantasy Ashes of the Sun. In his former life as a software engineer, he worked on AI research and programming languages. He currently lives near Seattle with his wife, two cats, and a teetering mountain of books. When not writing, he wrangles computers, paints tiny soldiers, and plays games of all sorts.
Bibliography
Novels
Memories of Empire (Medallion Press, 2005)
Shinigami (Medallion Press, 2006)
The Shadow Campaigns
The Thousand Names (Roc, 2013)
The Shadow Throne (Roc, 2014)
The Price of Valor (Roc, 2015)
The Guns of Empire (Roc, 2016)
The Infernal Battalion (Roc, 2017)
The Forbidden Library
The Forbidden Library (Kathy Dawson Books, 2014)
The Mad Apprentice (Kathy Dawson Books, 2015)
The Palace of Glass (Kathy Dawson Books, 2016)
The Fall of the Readers (Kathy Dawson Books, 2017)
The Wells of Sorcery
Ship of Smoke and Steel (Tor Teen, 2019)
City of Stone and Silence (Tor Teen, 2020)
Burningblade & Silvereye
Ashes of the Sun (Orbit, 2020)
Magic: The Gathering Fiction
The Gathering Storm (WotC, 2019) (Ravnica)
Sundered Bond (WotC, 2020) (Ikoria)
Short Stories
“The Penitent Damned” (Amazon, 2013) (The Shadow Campaigns)
“The End of the War” (Asimov’s, June 2015)
“The Guns of the Wastes” (Operation Arcana, Baen, 2015)
“REAL” (Press Start to Play, Vintage, 2015)
“Magic Beans” (Coffee: Hot, Circlet, 2015) (Unfettered II, Grim Oak, 2016)
“The First Kill” (Blackguards, Ragnarok, 2015) (The Shadow Campaigns)
“Last of the Red Riders” (Hath No Fury, Outland, 2018)
“Amara Kel’s Rules For TIE Pilot Survival (Probably)” (FACPOV: The Empire Strikes Back, Del Rey, 2020)
“Rox’d” (Quick Draw!, Platinum Spork, 2020)
“Plan Z” (Silk & Steel, Cantina, 2020)
Novellas
The Shadow of Elysium (Roc, 2015) (The Shadow Campaigns)
John Golden, Freelance Debugger (Ragnarok, 2014) (Amazon, 2017)
John Golden and the Heroes of Mazaroth (Ragnarok, 2014) (Amazon, 2017)
Interview with DJANGO WEXLER
July 22, 2020 Civilian Reader InterviewAshes of the Sun, Burningblade & Silvereye, Django Wexler, Fantasy, Head of Zeus, Most Anticipated 2020, Orbit
WexlerD-AuthorPicWelcome back to Civilian Reader! It’s been a little while, so for newcomers let’s start with an introduction: Who is Django Wexler?
Hi! I’m Django Wexler. I’m currently an author of fantasy series of various kinds — military, middle-grade, and young adult. Before that I was a software engineer and worked on AI research and programming languages. I’m very into games of all sorts (tabletop, board games, wargames, video games, etc) and watch a fair bit of anime. I read a lot, anything SFF on the fiction side and history, economics, and science on the non-fiction side. I’m a big fan of cats.
Your next novel, Ashes of the Sun, is the start of a new series and is due to be published by Orbit. How would you introduce it to a potential reader?
Ashes is an epic fantasy set in a post-fantasy-apocalypse — the aftermath of the collapse of a powerful magical civilization, with survivors living amidst the ruins. It’s about two siblings named Gyre and Maya; at a young age Maya is identified as having the potential to be a powerful wielder of magic and taken to be trained with the Twilight Order. A decade later, their paths cross again. Maya has grown into a committed believer in the Order’s mission of defending civilization, while her brother Gyre has sworn revenge on the callous authority that destroyed their family.
WexlerD-B&S1-AshesOfTheSunUS
What inspired you to write the novel and series?
I talk in a little more detail about it in a guest post on Chuck Wendig’s Terribleminds, but the basic concept comes out of Star Wars, which I love deeply. (I’m even in a new anthology!) It was interesting to me how our supposedly heroic Jedi get their trainees very young and give them somewhat irresponsible amounts of power, so I wanted to examine something similar in a setting where we’re not as automatically on the side of the Order as in Star Wars.
Setting-wise, I wanted to set it in the ruins of a fallen civilization, but a different kind of ruins then you often see in fantasy novels. Lots of settings have ancient empires in their past, but usually all that’s left is a few dungeons and maybe some magic superweapons. It’s kind of the Middle Ages-looking-at-the-Romans model, where there’s a few huge buildings and some legends but that’s it. Instead, I wanted my ancients (who have magic that lets them duplicate much of modern technology and beyond) to be closer to a modern civilization in their scope, so with their fall there’s just stuff everywhere, even centuries. The resulting setting is more Mad Max than Lord of the Rings, with people still regularly scavenging detritus from the ancients and repurposing it.
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This is, I believe, your fourth series – your others being the Shadow Campaigns, The Forbidden Library, and Wells of Sorcery. What lessons have you learned writing these other novels, and have they changed the way you approached this new series?
That sounds about right! It’s amazing for me to think about. My process has definitely changed over time — I outline a lot more than I used to, and I think it’s helped me learn to think through plots and spot potential problems at the stage where changes are still pretty easy. It’s also broadened my range a little. The middle-grade and young adult series are interesting because they pose different challenges and constraints than adult fantasy does.
WexlerD-PastSeries
What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?
I’m really happy with where the genre is at the moment and where it seems to be going, which is in the direction of greater diversity — both in the social sense, which is very welcome, but also in the sense that more kinds of things are being recognized as falling under the fantasy umbrella. When I was growing up, it felt like the genre was dominated by Tolkien re-treads (although looking back now there were plenty of neat things I never heard about) but today even headlining fantasy displays a wonderful mix of stuff, and it’s only getting better.
Do you have any other projects in the pipeline, and what are you working on at the moment?
Not too much that I can talk about! I’m just about finished with the first draft for Ashes 2, and I’ve got Wells of Sorcery 3 coming in January. There are some new things in the pipeline but I don’t think we’re at the reveal stage yet. Stay tuned!
What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?
Non-fiction-wise, I read a few books on the Russo-Japanese War, which is a fascinating period, and I’ve got Mayor’s The Poison King on the stack about Mithradates the Great. Fiction-wise, currently I’m doing some beta-reads for friends, but in my spare time I’m listening the The Witcher series in audiobook, which I highly recommend.
WexlerD-Reading2020
If you could recommend only one novel or book to someone, what would it be?
I can never answer this question seriously because there’s just too many! But one that I feel like has gotten overlooked recently is Max Gladstone’s Empress of Forever, which I absolutely love. (It may be because Max and Amal El-Mohtar also came out with their fantastic This is How You Lose the Time War this year, which has been dominating the award circuit.) If the description “lesbian Journey to the West in the Deep Future” or “there’s a scene where the Monkey King fights Facebook” appeal to you, definitely go check that one out.
GladstoneM-2019
What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?
People always seem surprised that I don’t use a pen name — Django is my real name! I’ve been spelling it for people my whole life.
What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?
It seems a little odd to say “the release of Ashes“, but that may be it! This one has been in production for what feels like a really long time, and I’m very excited to show it to everybody. (Also, in fairness, many of the things I usually look forward to have been cancelled.)
*
Django Wexler’s Ashes of the Sun is out now, published in North America by Orbit and Head of Zeus in the UK.
Django Wexler Guest Post—”Science Fantasy”
July 21, 2020
Genres and sub-genres are always tricky things to pin down, and never more so than with works that live at the boundary between two categories. Ashes of the Sun has been called, among other things, “science fantasy”—it’s not the only way to describe it, but it definitely fits. (Aside—as with all genre discussions, your terms and definitions may vary! There are many different lenses with which to examine these categories. This is just one of mine.) So what is science fantasy?
First of all, it’s a blended term, combining “science fiction” and “fantasy”. This is important because it means we shouldn’t take it literally—we don’t mean “fantasy about or involving science”, but rather something on the border of those two categories. (As far as I know, there isn’t a genre term for fantasy about science, though I’d love to read some.) In particular, science fantasy usually means a combination of the aesthetics of those categories.
One of the reasons genre definitions are so complicated (and the subject of so many internet arguments) is that you can come at them from multiple ways. You can talk about the subjects or themes of a genre—for science fiction this might be science itself, the extrapolation of the present into the future, the development of technology, and so on. But you can also talk about the aesthetic, or the trappings, of the genre, roughly speaking “the things that tend to show up a lot”. Spaceships, robots, energy weapons, computers, genetic manipulation, and so on for SF, or swords, dragons, wizards, kings, etc. for fantasy. (Importantly, neither of these approaches is wrong! To the extent that genre is a tool for figuring out which readers might like which books, either definition can be useful, depending on the reader.)
Science fantasy, as a category, typically doesn’t refer to a combination of subjects so much as a combination of aesthetics. We don’t mean an SF novel that includes an examination of the nature of kingship; we mean a book that has spaceships and dragons in it. The clearest example of science fantasy, which practically everyone is familiar with, is Star Wars. Indeed, I think Star Wars is so familiar now that it can be hard to take a step back and see it for the blend it is: it has starships, robots, and blasters, but also knights and magic, along with a Campbellian Hero’s Journey that wouldn’t have fit into Golden Age SF.
And this is what really attracted me to this particular corner of the SFF spectrum, because I love the crossing and combining of aesthetics. It always fascinated me that there’s no intrinsic reason that fantasy has to take place in pseudo-medieval-England (and, thankfully, it increasingly does not). My first series, The Shadow Campaigns, blended a set of more typically fantasy elements (secret magic, ancient cults, kings and queens) with a social and technological background from the late 18th century (muskets, cannon, social revolution). This is not quite science fantasy, since the aesthetic I’m blending isn’t that of science fiction.
Ashes of the Sun, on the other hand, is proper science fantasy. (Which is no accident, because it owes quite a lot to Star Wars!) So we have quite a few fantasy trappings—a varied but general low level of basic technology, swords and lots of melee combat, magic enacted mostly by will and thought—combined with some definitely SFnal ones, although sometimes viewed through a fantasy lens: energy weapons, flying ships, robots, atomic weapons, genetic manipulation, transporters.
Writing something like this raises a couple of unique wrinkles. First, there’s the question of whether this is literally a blend of magic and present- or future-technology, as seen in RPG settings like Shadowrun and Rifts and series like Mark Lawrence’s The Broken Empire. In my case I went a different route, with a fundamentally magical universe where the uses of magic resemble or evoke SF tropes. This helps keep the metaphysics of the story consistent—the power that Maya wields with her flaming sword is fundamentally the same power the Chosen used to create skyscrapers, flying ships, and blasters, but humans have lost much of the ability to use it.
This gets at the second tricky part in putting together a world like this, which is explaining how this situation came to be and continues to exist. After all, there’s a reason that certain pieces of aesthetic don’t go well together—in spite of what Warhammer 40,000 might tell us, there’s not a lot of room on the battlefield for swords when machine guns are available. In this case of Ashes of the Sun, the dichotomy is the result of an apocalyptic collapse of civilization—but importantly, it’s the collapse of a magical civilization, including the extinction of the most powerful wielders of magic, leaving their successors to pick through their scraps. Unlike the fallen civilizations that populate most D&D worlds, who are mostly confined to ruins and wilderness, I wanted to show something closer to the downfall of a modern or SF civilization. There’s just stuff everywhere, even centuries later, repurposed by those who come after in interesting and sometimes alarming ways.
So, why set Ashes up in this particular way? There’s many reasons—the Star Wars connection, plus I just think it’s cool—but science fantasy also reflects the philosophical disagreement that’s at the core of the book. One form of magic, deiat, is innate and hereditary, available only by an accident of birth; one side believes that those who can use it have the responsibility to rule and protect the rest. The other, dhaka, can be learned by anyone—it is experimental, and often dangerous. The authorities consider it a threat, while the other side in the debate believes it’s the only way for humanity to move forward. This neatly mirrors some common contrasts drawn between science fiction and fantasy, and so giving the world a science fantasy “look” seemed like a natural choice. I ended up having a lot of fun with it, and I hope you will to.
Django Wexler is the bestselling fantasy author of the Shadow Campaigns series and the Wells of Sorcery young adult series. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with degrees in creative writing and computer science, and worked for the university in artificial intelligence research. Eventually he migrated to Microsoft in Seattle, where he now lives with two cats and a teetering mountain of books. When not writing, he wrangles computers, paints tiny soldiers, and plays games of all sorts. Ashes of the Sun, the first book of his new epic fantasy series, releases July 21.
QUOTED: "I wanted to try something closer to the wreckage a modern civilization would leave behind, so it’s less Lord Of The Rings and more Mad Max, with humans repurposing ancient materials and machines into makeshift new roles."
"Star Wars, and specifically the way the Jedi Order works, as we see in the prequels and the Clone WarsTV show — people with Force potential are brought to the Jedi for training very young. Nobody ever really seems unhappy about it, but I wanted to write a story that questioned that a little more, and also the whole notion that ultimate authority goes to a group of people who are basically born with their potential."
Exclusive Interview: Ashes Of The Sun Author Django Wexler
July 20, 2020 Paul Semel 0 Comments Author Interview, Books, Django Wexler, Django Wexler Ashes of The Sun, Django Wexler Ashes of The Sun Interview, Django Wexler Burningblade & Silvereye, Django Wexler Burningblade & Silvereye Trilogy, Django Wexler Burningblade And Silvereye, Django Wexler Burningblade And Silvereye Trilogy, Django Wexler Interview, Fantasy, fantasy books, reading
Usually when a writer cites Star Wars as a major influence, it’s because their novel is of the space opera or space fantasy genre. Or has chatty robots. But in the following email interview about Ashes of The Sun (paperback, Kindle), the first book of his Burningblade & Silvereye trilogy, writer Django Wexler is instead talking about what he calls a post-fantasy-apocalypse tale.
Django Wexler Ashes Of The Sun Burningblade & Silvereye
Let’s start with a plot overview. What is Ashes Of The Sun about?
Ashes Of The Sun takes place in a post-fantasy-apocalypse, where the magical empire of the Chosen has come crashing down and their former human servants live among the ruins. The Twilight Order safeguards the last remnants of the Chosen’s knowledge and power, and searches for people with the inborn ability to use their magic.
Siblings Gyre and Maya are children when the Order comes to their farm, demanding Maya be given into their care to be trained. Maya doesn’t want to go, and when Gyre tries to intervene he’s badly hurt. Twelve years later, Maya has grown up to become one of the Order’s most promising new recruits, while Gyre has turned to the underworld, delving into ruins in search of forbidden magic. And the plans of a hidden mastermind put them on a collision course…
Where did you get the idea for Ashes Of The Sun, and how, if at all, did that idea change as you wrote this story?
There’s two main threads that went into Ashes. The first is the setting, the fallen Chosen empire. The lost glory of ancient races is a pretty common theme in fantasy, but it’s usually fairly subtle, hidden in dungeons or ancient temples. I wanted to try something closer to the wreckage a modern civilization would leave behind, so it’s less Lord Of The Rings and more Mad Max, with humans repurposing ancient materials and machines into makeshift new roles.
The second came from Star Wars, and specifically the way the Jedi Order works, as we see in the prequels and the Clone WarsTV show — people with Force potential are brought to the Jedi for training very young. Nobody ever really seems unhappy about it, but I wanted to write a story that questioned that a little more, and also the whole notion that ultimate authority goes to a group of people who are basically born with their potential.
Ashes Of The Sun is not your first novel. What do you consider to be the biggest influences on this story? You mentioned Star Wars…
Star Wars is the big, obvious one. I’m a huge Star Wars fan, and as an obsessive world-building nerd I tend to show my love by nit-picking and theorizing, and this story definitely arose out of that. Some of the more thoughtful critical takes on Star Wars were very inspirational — David Brin and Matthew Woodring Stover’s Star Wars On Trial, for example, or the Mr. Plinkett reviews of Red Letter Media.
Ashes Of The Sun is the first book in a new series called Burningblade & Silvereye. What can you tell us about this series?
The series is a trilogy, which I’ve got pretty well plotted out. I really like stories with a plan from beginning to end, rather than working on something more open-ended.
Do you know what the other two are going to be called and when they might be out?
I don’t think the titles for books two and three are finalized, but the first draft of two is just about done, and they should be out at roughly one year intervals — so July-ish 2021 and 2022, if all goes well.
As you know, there are people who will wait until all three books are out before reading any of them, and some will read them back-to-back. But is there some reason why you think people shouldn’t wait?
It depends a little on why you don’t want to read books until the series is finished. If you just really like binging the whole thing, I suppose you could wait for the end, although it’s always worth noting that early sales do make it more likely that publishers will keep buying my stuff. If you’re worried that I’ll get distracted and not finish the series, though, I like to think I have a pretty good track record — this will make twelve novels in the last seven years, and all the series have had a solid one-per-year release cycle.
Speaking of your other books, along with Ashes Of The Sun, you also recently published Ikoria: Lair Of Behemoths: Sundered Bond, which is the second Magic The Gathering book you’ve written. What is Ikoria about, and how does it connect, both narratively and chronologically, to your other Magic story, The Gathering Storm?
This was a lot of fun! Ikoria takes place on a new plane full of giant creatures, and it’s the story of Lukka, who gets exiled from his home after discovering he has the power to bond with monsters. He makes new friends in his quest to return, but at the same time he’s tempted by darker powers.
But it has very little connection to The Gathering Storm, actually. For the Magic stories, I’m basically following the lead of the Magic creative team, who start out with an outline of what they want that we work on together. Ikoria takes place after the conclusion of the big Bolas story arc in War Of The Spark, which follows immediately on from Gathering Storm, but I don’t think there are any character shared between the two.
Is it safe to assume that you wrote Ashes Of The Sun and Ikoria either at the same time or back-to-back?
Pretty close to back-to-back, although there might have been something else in between — I have book three of Wells Of Sorcery, my YA series, in there too.
So how do you think writing Ikoria influenced Ashes, and vice versa?
It’s hard to pick out any direct influences. Ashes definitely has closer to a Magic style of…magic then, say, Shadow Campaigns, where the magic is more subtle and indirect — magic in Ashes is very much of the slam-bang-fireball style.
And how did writing a story in someone else’s fictional universe, with them overseeing everything, impact what you wrote in Ashes Of The Sun?
Writing in someone else’s universe is always an interesting challenge. It makes it kind of a relief to get back to my own, actually, because I’m less concerned about getting things wrong. In my universe, what I say goes, whereas if I screw up some canon in the Magic universe the fans are going to be mad at me. It’s a lot of fun, but there’s a lot of work involved in making sure things are consistent.
Along with Ashes Of The Sun and Ikoria: Lair Of Behemoths, you also had two of your Shadow Campaigns novels — The Guns Of Empire and The Infernal Battalion — come out in paperback recently. For people who haven’t read any of those books, what are those novels about?
The Shadow Campaigns is a military fantasy series in a Napoleonic world — magic is subtle, and muskets, cannons, and cavalry charges are the face of warfare. It follows the career of Janus bet Vhalnich, a mysterious military genius, and the soldiers he drags in his wake as he crosses the continent in pursuit of his ambition.
I assume not, but I’ll ask anyway: Is there anything new or different about the new paperback editions of The Guns Of Empire and The Infernal Battalion?
I don’t think anything has changed. There may be a few minor errata fixed here and there.
Going back to Ashes Of The Sun, earlier I asked if that story had been influenced by any movies, TV shows, or video games. But has there been any interest in turning it or the Burningblade & Silvereye trilogy as a whole into a movie, show, or game?
I haven’t heard about any interest, but I’d love to do it. As an anime fan, I’m always pushing for animated adaptations, which I think would work particularly well for the high-magic world of Ashes. It’d be awfully expensive to do all the magic and monsters in a live show, but an animated series would be amazing.
Django Wexler Ashes Of The Sun Burningblade & Silvereye
Finally, if someone enjoys Ashes Of The Sun, which of your other novels would you suggest they read next and why that one?
Ship Of Smoke And Steel has the most similarities in terms of magic system — people have intrinsic, extremely combat-oriented powers, and use it to fight monsters (and one another.) That series also features a primary relationship between two siblings, although it’s a very different one.
Django Wexler
USA flag
Django Wexler graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with degrees in creative writing and computer science, and worked for the university in artificial intelligence research. Eventually he migrated to Microsoft in Seattle, where he now lives with two cats and a teetering mountain of books. When not planning Shadow Campaigns, he wrangles computers, paints tiny soldiers, and plays games of all sorts.
Genres: Fantasy, Children's Fiction, Young Adult Fantasy, Science Fiction
New Books
October 2020
(hardback)
Ashes of the Sun
(Burningblade & Silvereye, book 1)November 2020
(hardback)
From a Certain Point of View: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
(Star Wars)January 2021
(hardback)
Siege of Rage and Ruin
(Wells of Sorcery Trilogy, book 3)
January 2021
(paperback)
City of Stone and Silence
(Wells of Sorcery Trilogy, book 2)May 2021
(paperback)
Hard RebootOctober 2021
(hardback)
Blood of the Chosen
(Burningblade & Silvereye, book 2)
Series
Shadow Campaigns
0.5. The Penitent Damned (2013)
1. The Thousand Names (2013)
2. The Shadow Throne (2014)
2.5. The Shadow of Elysium (2015)
3. The Price of Valour (2015)
aka The Price of Valor
4. The Guns of Empire (2016)
5. The Infernal Battalion (2018)
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John Golden
1. Freelance Debugger (2014)
2. The Heroes of Mazaroth (2014)
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Forbidden Library
1. The Forbidden Library (2014)
2. The Mad Apprentice (2015)
3. The Palace of Glass (2016)
4. The Fall of the Readers (2017)
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Wells of Sorcery Trilogy
1. Ship of Smoke and Steel (2019)
2. City of Stone and Silence (2020)
3. Siege of Rage and Ruin (2021)
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Burningblade & Silvereye
1. Ashes of the Sun (2020)
2. Blood of the Chosen (2021)
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Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
Sundered Bond (2020)
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Novels
Memories of Empire (2005)
Shinigami (2006)
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Novellas
The First Kill (2015)
Hard Reboot (2021)
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Series contributed to
Star Wars (with Tom Angleberger, Sarwat Chadda, S A Chakraborty, Mike Chen, Adam Christopher, Katie Cook, Zoraida Córdova, Delilah S Dawson, Tracy Deonn, Seth Dickinson, Alexander Freed, Jason Fry, Christie Golden, Hank Green, Rob Hart, Lydia Kang, Michael Kogge, R F Kuang, C B Lee, Mackenzi Lee, John Jackson Miller, Michael Moreci, Daniel José Older, Mark Oshiro, Amy Ratcliffe, Beth Revis, Lilliam Rivera, Cavan Scott, Emily Skrutskie, Karen Strong, Anne Toole, Catherynne M Valente, Austin Walker, Martha Wells, Kiersten White, Gary Whitta, Brittany N Williams, Charles Yu and Jim Zub)
From a Certain Point of View: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (2020)
Django Wexler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Django Wexler is an American fantasy author. He has published the "flintlock fantasy" series The Shadow Campaigns (2013–2018), the young adult Forbidden Library fantasy series, and other works.
Contents
1 Career
2 Work
2.1 The Shadow Campaigns
3 Bibliography
4 References
5 External links
Career
Wexler obtained degrees in creative writing and computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and engaged in post-graduate artificial intelligence research at the university. He later worked as a programmer and writer for Microsoft in Seattle before turning to writing fiction full-time.[1]
Work
The Shadow Campaigns
Wexler's principal epic fantasy series, The Shadow Campaigns, is set in a world resembling Europe and North Africa of the Napoleonic era. It mainly follows three soldiers of the kingdom of Vordan – Count Janus bet Vhalnich, a character patterned on Napoleon,[2] Marcus d'Ivoire, a seasoned infantry commander posted to a backwards colony, and Winter Ihernglass, a young woman who disguised herself as a man in order to be able to enlist. In The Shadow Throne the series introduces a new main character, princess Raesnia Orboan of the Vordan kingdom. As they struggle through Vordan's equivalents of the French Revolution and the attendant wars, they also face a supernatural threat in the form of conspiracies fighting for control of the rare remnants of magic still existing in the world.
Reviewing the series for Tor.com, Stefan Raets described the first novel, The Thousand Names, as a "military fantasy full of spectacular battles" with a large and diverse cast, but criticized Winter's lack of agency.[3] The Shadow Throne was appreciated by Publishers Weekly as an "audacious and subversive sequel"[4] and by Liz Bourke at Tor.com as an "immensely entertaining" novel that unlike other male-written fantasy avoided the grimdark trend and featured a "central, significant, queer relationship between two women", but noted that Wexler relied much on coincidences to advance the plot.[5] She also praised the third novel, The Price of Valour, for surpassing its predecessors as an "explosive, action-packed" epic fantasy novel with complex characterization and, again, a wide variety of female characters.[6]
Bibliography
The Shadow Campaigns series
The Thousand Names, 2013, Roc, ISBN 978-0-451-46510-8
The Shadow Throne, 2014, Roc, ISBN 978-0-451-41806-7
The Price of Valor, 2015, Del Rey, ISBN 978-0-091-95056-9
The Guns of Empire, 2016, Ace, ISBN 978-0-451-47732-3
The Infernal Battalion, 2018, Ace, ISBN 978-0-451-47734-7
Short fiction:
"The Penitent Damned", 2013, io9
"The Shadow of Elysium", 2015, InterMix
The Forbidden Library series
The Forbidden Library
The Mad Apprentice
The Palace of Glass
The Fall of the Readers
John Golden series
John Golden: Freelance Debugger
John Golden & the Heroes of Mazaroth
The Wells of Sorcery trilogy
Ship of Smoke and Steel, January 2019, Tor Teen, ISBN 978-0-7653-9724-9[7]
City of Stone and Silence, January 2020, Tor Teen, ISBN 9780765397270[8]
Siege of Rage and Ruin, January 2021, Tor Teen, ISBN 9780765397317
Other stories
The Gathering Storm, June–October 2019, Penguin Random House
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths—Sundered Bond, April 2020, Penguin Random House[9]
Amara Kel’s Rules For TIE Pilot Survival (Probably) (short story in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - From A Certain Point of View), November 2020, Del Rey
Django Wexler graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with degrees in creative writing and computer science, and worked for the university in artifical intelligence research. Eventually he migrated to Microsoft in Seattle, where he now lives with two cats and a teetering mountain of books. When not planning Shadow Campaigns, he wrangles computers, paints tiny soldiers, and plays games of all sorts.
Django Wexler is a self-proclaimed computer/fantasy/sci-fi geek. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with degrees in creative writing and computer science, worked in artificial intelligence research and as a programmer/writer for Microsoft, and is now a full-time fantasy writer. Django is the author of the Shadow Campaigns, an epic fantasy series for adults published by Roc (an imprint of Penguin), and the Forbidden Library, a classic fantasy series for young readers published by Kathy Dawson Books (an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group).
QUOTED: "a fast-paced, compelling conclusion to this fantasy saga."
Wexler, Django SIEGE OF RAGE AND RUIN Tor Teen (Teen None) $18.99 1, 5 ISBN: 978-0-7653-9731-7
With the ghost ship under her control, Isoka is finally on her way back home in this follow-up to City of Stone and Silence (2020).
Isoka, along with her female partner, Meroe, and mage-blood friends Jack and Zarun, is on her way back to her home city, Kahnzoka. By capturing the Soliton, she has fulfilled her end of Kuon Naga’s deal and is ready to save her 14-year-old sister, Tori. Their plan to sneak in and out undetected goes awry when they arrive to discover Kahnzoka under siege and Tori, with her mind-control magic, at the head of a rebellion. But neither sister is the same person as when Isoka left on the Soliton, creating misunderstandings and complicated feelings between them. Their reunion is cut short when Kuon Naga’s Immortals, a group of elite mage-bloods, kidnap Tori. Isoka and her crew get drawn into Tori and the rebels’ fight to free their home city. Alternating between the two sisters’ perspectives, this trilogy closer dives deeper into the responsibility for and inner workings of the rebellion and conflict with Kuon Naga. Even with many intense action scenes and a storyline that keeps the pages turning, there is a greater focus on the strategy and politics of the Empire that fleshes out the worldbuilding. As before, the characters are diverse in ethnicity and sexuality.
A fast-paced, compelling conclusion to this fantasy saga. (map) (Fantasy. 14-adult)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Wexler, Django: SIEGE OF RAGE AND RUIN." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A638165998/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=22cc7ebe. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "Familial tension, magic, and politics combine to kick this series off to a powerful start."
Ashes of the Sun
Django Wexler. Orbit, $16.99 trade paper
(592p) ISBN 978-0-316-51954-0
Wexler (Sundered Bond) demonstrates a talent for worldbuilding in the impressive post-apocalyptic fantasy that launches his Burningblade and Silvereye trilogy. The Plague War left the world in shambles, leading to the rise of the Twilight Order, a group that claims to protect the people of the Dawn Republic from plaguespawn monsters but really works to gain control of the dhak, a powerful branch of magit. When the Order comes to take sickly five-year-old Maya from her family's farm, claiming they can cure her, her eight-year old-brother, Gyre, fights back and winds up with a scar across his face. As 12 years pass, Gyre, now known as Halfmask, makes it his mission to destroy the Order. Meanwhile, Maya is raised in the Order by her mentor Jaedia Suddenstorm and believes in their cause wholeheartedly. When the siblings' paths collide, they must decide if they will remain on opposite sides or face the future together. Though the goofy fantasy names will pull some readers out of the story (in addition to Suddenstorm there is an antagonist with the surname Thousandcuts), the fascinating lore of this plague-ridden land and the colorful cast will surely draw them in again. Familial tension, magic, and politics combine to kick this series off to a powerful start. Agent'. Seth Fishman, the Gernert Co. (July)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Ashes of the Sun." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 19, 11 May 2020, p. 74+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A624519303/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f56fd1ce. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "a magical, enthralling must-read."
Wexler, Django CITY OF STONE AND SILENCE Tor Teen (Young Adult Fiction) $17.99 1, 7 ISBN: 978-0-7653-9727-0
Having recently assumed leadership, Isoka must help her crew survive in a new land and take control of Soliton in this well-executed sequel.
After leading everyone to safety from the Vile Rot, Isoka is the new leader of Soliton's crew. Set on a predetermined path, the ship arrives at its destination, the Harbor. The Harbor is an ancient city of stone ziggurats encased in a dome of Eddica--or Spirits--magic. Living in a delicate balance are the Cresos clan aristocrats, monks called the Minders, and Prime, an Eddicant who terrorizes everyone with the living dead. Isoka must find a way to take control of the Harbor and Soliton to save her sister, Tori. What Isoka doesn't know is that Tori has been sneaking away from her luxurious life to help at a lower-ward hospital and sanctuary for runaway mage-bloods. When Isoka doesn't show up for Tori's birthday, Tori's search for answers brings her into the middle of a rebellion. Using her secret power of Kindre, Tori bends minds as she seeks Isoka. Alternating between the two sisters' points of view, each chapter is captivating and ends in suspense. Wexler (Ship of Smoke and Steel, 2019, etc.) does not disappoint, delving deeper into Isoka's journey but also exploring Tori's life, thereby revealing hierarchal problems and discrimination in this highly diverse, magical society.
A magical, enthralling must-read. (map, Wells of Sorcery list) (Fantasy. 14-adult)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
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"Wexler, Django: CITY OF STONE AND SILENCE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A602487637/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5c1a1d72. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "This standout series opener is a winner: intricate, immersive, and irresistible."
Ashes of the Sun. By Django Wexler. July 2020. 592p. Orbit, paper, $16.99 (9780316519540); e-book (9780316519465).
Two siblings, separated as children, join opposite sides of an impending civil war in this outstanding flintlock fantasy. After a catastrophic magical war destroyed the Elder races, humans were left in charge of their own destiny. The Dawn Republic rules, while the Twilight Order defends; both ruthlessly police unauthorized use of Elder arcana. Gyre, known in Deepfire city as the notorious rebel Halfmask, works to bring down the Order, both to make room for something new and as revenge for the Order stealing his sister Maya twelve years before. Maya has grown up in the Order, trained to use her inborn magic to uphold the Republic. She's sent to Deepfire to assist Republic rulers with capturing the rebels. Building toward their reunion is only one of the book's suspenseful story lines, as Gyre and Maya converge at multiple points while they pursue injustice from different angles. The siblings and the large secondary cast are engaging, well-developed characters with understandable motivations and believable growth. Wexler's (City of Stone and Silence, 2020) post-apocalyp tic world is rich with history and fascinating in its inventive combination of magic, alchemy, and technology. This standout series opener is a winner: intricate, immersive, and irresistible. --Krista Hutley
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Hutley, Krista. "Ashes of the Sun." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 19-20, 1 June 2020, p. 51+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A628068869/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bef96334. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
City of Stone and Silence. By Django Wexler. Jan. 2020.368p. Tor Teen, $17.99 (9780765397270). Gr. 10-12.
Tori, sister of ward boss and Combat mage Isoka, lives well, treated like a noble lady in the Second Ward. Isoka pays for her tutors, maids, and guardians, and Tori has been kept safe. While Isoka works for the Emperor aboard the magical ship Soliton, Tori has been sneaking into the lower wards, helping young mages escape the Emperor's law at great risk to herself. Meanwhile, at sea, Isoka gets further and further away from her old life in the wards. She's learned to control her magic, she's survived a run-in with a terrible rotting disease, and she's fallen in love with Princess Meroe. As much as Isoka wants to get home, she also wants to protect Meroe from the undead corpses that have found them in a hidden city-if she doesn't lose her own life first. This follow-up to Ship of Smoke and Steel (2019) builds on the story and the background of this world. Make sure to have both books on hand for older teen adventure fans. --Stacey Comfort
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Comfort, Stacey. "City of Stone and Silence." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 6, 15 Nov. 2019, p. 52. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A608183788/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=176968c5. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.